Jo Swinson celebrates her election victory

Laura Sturrock

Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson was delighted to win back her seat in East Dunbartonshire last night (Thursday, June 8). Ms Swinson, a former equalities minister, returns to parliament after losing the same seat to the SNP’s John Nicolson in 2015.

There’s even been speculation that she could become the next leader of the Lib Dems.

Speaking after her election victory, Ms Swinson said: “I’m feeling absolutely delighted, the result tonight has been something that I couldn’t have necessarily expected.

“I was working incredibly hard to win the seat again because I want to be the MP for East Dunbartonshire.

“It’s the job that I’ve loved the most out of everything that I’ve done.

“I’m so happy that I will be able to do that again, working for local people and helping individuals, also taking up local community issues that are controversial and causing difficulty.

“And of course contributing on the national stage to these really big issues of Brexit and Scotland’s future in the UK which I know so many people have raised with me on the doorsteps.

“I got a really warm response from people on the doorsteps and while obviously there was a lot of people voting SNP and a fair number of people voted Labour and Conservative.

“One of the things that’s so great about elections in East Dunbartonshire is that actually they’re pretty good natured.

“You have people from different political allegiances but you still have a pretty good conversation.

“And there’s no hard feelings which I think is great and is one of the strengths of our community.

“For all the division you get in an election campaign I think the community coming together is really important.

“I’m looking forward to working with people who voted for me and people who didn’t vote for me as well.